NASA delays award of multibillion dollar SEWP V contract

Aug. 19, 2014 - 06:00AM
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NASA has postponed the award of its $20 billion Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V contract until September, according to the agency.

The delay is primarily due to the large volume of proposals the agency received, which required a lengthy review and selection process, according to NASA spokeswoman Sonja Alexander. There are about 70 contractors on the SEWP IV contract.

She said the delay was also partially due to a bid protest against the contract. IMPRES Technology Solutions, Inc., Metis intellisystems, LLC, Futron, Inc., Patriot Comm and Ideal System Solutions, Inc. said NASA has unreasonably determined their proposals exceeded the allowed page limit. But the GAO denied the protests in a ruling Aug. 5.

Jennifer Sakole, prinicpal analyst for federal information solutions at Deltek, said in a blog post on Federal Times that the NASA SEWP IV contract has seen a high volume of spending activity and task order awards over the last few years.

From fiscal 2010 to 2013, there have been on average 12,000 task orders awarded every year with an average task value order of $196,000., according to Deltek.